Nvidia Shows Off Project Shield; Will It Revolutionize Portable Gaming?

Nvidia, the company that has been the backbone of almost every gaming fan’s rig since many years has now decided to venture into the area of portable handhelds. This new product that they showcased at CES this year is called Project Shield and is not limited to being just another handheld. It is much more than that because not only does it allow you to play standalone games on the device, it also allows a 2 ways stream from the device to a desktop/laptop with the added bonus of WiFi connectivity. Let’s get down to the features: Physical Description: The device is basically a handheld with a decent size touch screen. I have not laid my hands on it yet but I have my doubts about the device’s ergonomics after looking at all the pictures of the product. I might be off here but it definitely looks a bit awkward to me. It has integrated speakers, a multi-touch 5 inch display mounted on top of the gamepad which has a resolution of 720p retinal display. Processor: Shield sports Nvidia’s latest Tegra 4 mobile processor which at the time of writing seems to be the fastest mobile processor yet with a custom 72 core GeForce GPU and a Quad-core A 15 CPU. Nvidia launched this new processor at CES along with Project Shield. We wrote about Tegra 4’s launch yesterday. Get all the information on it here . OS: The device sports Jelly Bean and comes with a modified yet stock Android experience. The inclusion of Android means that this device will be able to play all the games on Google Play right out of the box. The device will have its own Game store i.e Nvidia’s Tegrazone. Besides this, Shield can do everything a mobile user can do except for making calls. You will be able to access apps, music, videos, the mobile web among other things. Streaming: This seems to be the best feature of the device according to me. Shield will be able to wirelessly access your GeForce GTX powered gaming rig and stream the game therein to the handheld. You will also be able to access Steam games this way. The streaming is supposed to be a two-way thing. You can stream the games available on your Shield to your PC/laptop, thus bringing your mobile games to a larger screen. Opinion: This is all very good but the chances of this handheld succeeding are not very good. The handheld market has dwindles with more people shifting to their mobile phones for gaming. These days, phones have a lot of horsepower and can run a lot of complex graphic based games. Why would they want to buy a portable device to do the same? The device sports Android which means that it no different from higher end Android devices/phones in terms of game availability and play. The only thing that the device brings to the table is the streaming capability which itself is not a radically new thing. Another problem with Project Shield happens to be that it is supposedly priced rather high according to the hints that Nvidia is dropping . I don’t see it revolutionizing handheld gaming as such but it is a pretty neat toy to play with. This handheld seems like it is only targeted towards hardcore gamers who would like to have a handy accessory around them. What do you think about this? Share your thoughts with us. Via | DMW Story Source | Nvidia Blog Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency

Nvidia, the company that has been the backbone of almost every gaming fan’s rig since many years has now decided to venture into the area of portable handhelds. This new product that they showcased at CES this year is called Project Shield and is not limited to being just another handheld. It is much more than that because not only does it allow you to play standalone games on the device, it also allows a 2 ways stream from the device to a desktop/laptop with the added bonus of WiFi connectivity. Let’s get down to the features: Physical Description: The device is basically a handheld with a decent size touch screen. I have not laid my hands on it yet but I have my doubts about the device’s ergonomics after looking at all the pictures of the product. I might be off here but it definitely looks a bit awkward to me. It has integrated speakers, a multi-touch 5 inch display mounted on top of the gamepad which has a resolution of 720p retinal display. Processor: Shield sports Nvidia’s latest Tegra 4 mobile processor which at the time of writing seems to be the fastest mobile processor yet with a custom 72 core GeForce GPU and a Quad-core A 15 CPU. Nvidia launched this new processor at CES along with Project Shield. We wrote about Tegra 4’s launch yesterday. Get all the information on it here . OS: The device sports Jelly Bean and comes with a modified yet stock Android experience. The inclusion of Android means that this device will be able to play all the games on Google Play right out of the box. The device will have its own Game store i.e Nvidia’s Tegrazone. Besides this, Shield can do everything a mobile user can do except for making calls. You will be able to access apps, music, videos, the mobile web among other things. Streaming: This seems to be the best feature of the device according to me. Shield will be able to wirelessly access your GeForce GTX powered gaming rig and stream the game therein to the handheld. You will also be able to access Steam games this way. The streaming is supposed to be a two-way thing. You can stream the games available on your Shield to your PC/laptop, thus bringing your mobile games to a larger screen. Opinion: This is all very good but the chances of this handheld succeeding are not very good. The handheld market has dwindles with more people shifting to their mobile phones for gaming. These days, phones have a lot of horsepower and can run a lot of complex graphic based games. Why would they want to buy a portable device to do the same? The device sports Android which means that it no different from higher end Android devices/phones in terms of game availability and play. The only thing that the device brings to the table is the streaming capability which itself is not a radically new thing. Another problem with Project Shield happens to be that it is supposedly priced rather high according to the hints that Nvidia is dropping . I don’t see it revolutionizing handheld gaming as such but it is a pretty neat toy to play with. This handheld seems like it is only targeted towards hardcore gamers who would like to have a handy accessory around them. What do you think about this? Share your thoughts with us. Via | DMW Story Source | Nvidia Blog Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency